Living in the Mystery: How to Practice in Uncertain Times

A sense of certainty allows us to feel that there is solid ground beneath us upon which we can keep what we have and pursue further dreams. While it feels good to win and to get what we want, every form of comfort rests on an impermanent and unreliable foundation. On an individual level (whether it’s our living situation, financial status, health, or relationships) or a global level (whether it’s politics, war, or climate chaos), the reality of instability can evoke fear, anxiety, and grief.

The core teachings remind us that liberation arises from a true understanding of the Three Marks of Existence: impermanence or change (anicca); suffering or unsatisfactoriness (dukkha); and not-self or insubstantiality (anattā).

In this weekend retreat we will explore these teachings through Dharma talks, group discussions, and meditations. This will allow us to share in the possibility of freedom from the struggles that arise around us.

Please check out Spirit Rock’s Page for more details on this program

This silent retreat will focus on cultivating the quality of lovingkindness (mettā in Pāli), infusing our hearts, minds, and bodies with a strong, caring wisdom. Awareness, as developed through mindfulness practice, leads to clarity, insight, and understanding. Lovingkindness practices open the heart, allow a kind embrace of ourselves, and connect us intimately with all of life. The fusion of these qualities helps us to respond more compassionately to the challenges that we encounter in ourselves and in the world.

Qigong is a practice of aligning breath, movement, and awareness for exercise, healing, and meditation. Qigong perfectly complements traditional sitting meditation practice and has a long and well-established connection to contemplative traditions. On this retreat, lovingkindness practices will be supported by periods of guided instruction as well as Qigong, meditation, and regular meetings with the teachers.

This retreat is silent except for teacher-led Q&A, small groups, or other practice meetings.

Please check out Spirit Rock’s Page for more details on this program

Many of us are engaged with the world as activists or organizers. But even if you don’t identify that way, you probably deeply care about the world and want to change it. For those of us with a regular meditation or embodiment practice, we might wonder how we can align the tools we use to find ease, ground, refresh, and stay connected with our most deeply-held values. Without learning how to align our practice with our beliefs, it can start to feel like escapism. But how do we move forward?

In this two-day non-residential retreat, we’ll explore “hope” as a way through. What does it feel like to hold hope as an embodied practice in a tumultuous world? How do we cultivate love without spiritually bypassing? Is there a way to connect to our own sense of well-being and joy while remaining fully present to injustice and violence?

Join long-time friends and collaborators Booker and Dara as they weave together somatic (body-based) practices and the heart practices of the Buddha’s Brahmaviharas (expressions of love). Together we’ll cultivate these capacities in ourselves, and nurture a fuller understanding of the body and heart.

Everyone is welcome to participate, regardless of experience with meditation or body-based practices. Please wear comfortable clothes you can move in.

Click here to register and for additional information

How do we stay grounded, centered, and rooted in compassion and wisdom, especially in times of personal and global challenges? In this silent retreat, we’ll offer teachings and tools from the Dharma and Yoga traditions for settling your nervous system, grounding your energy, and connecting in an embodied way with what matters most. You’ll replenish your body, heart, and mind with a seamless flow of meditation in movement and in stillness, within a spacious schedule that offers ample time to rest, be in nature, and honor the natural rhythms of your own practice.

Each day includes gentle guided Yoga; seated, walking, standing, and lying down meditation; Dharma reflections; and small group meetings with a teacher. You’ll go home with powerful, practical tools for staying centered in your daily life, and you’ll be better equipped to respond with wisdom and compassion to the urgent needs of our times.

This retreat is silent except for teacher-led Q&A, small groups, or other practice meetings.

Please check out Spirit Rock’s Page for more details on this program

Awakening to the beauty that is within and around us all is an essential part of the Buddhist path, and it is of particular importance to those of us who have been taught to view ourselves and the world in a different light. In practicing together throughout this retreat, we will closely consider—and deeply nurture—what beauty means for us, both individually and collectively.

Grounded in kindness, this retreat will offer meditation, mindful movement, heart-centered practices, Dharma talks, practice discussions, and opportunities for inquiry. In creating this beautiful and supportive container, we find greater freedom for ourselves and our communities. This retreat supports all levels of practice and inclusivity for our LGBTQIA+, GNC, and non-binary communities and is open to all levels of meditation experience.

This retreat is silent except for teacher-led Q&A, small groups, or other practice meetings.

Please check out Spirit Rock’s Page for more details on this program

More details will follow!

The Universe Is My True Body: A Five Elements Retreat for BIPOC Practitioners 

Mindfulness of the body is a core practice on the Buddha's path to liberation. One of the ways we can work with this practice is through contemplations on the five elements: earth, water, fire, air, and space/ether. These elements exist both within and beyond our bodies, and they can be known directly through our loving awareness. Being with the elemental nature of our bodies and of the world around us is a way to connect deeply to our physical experience in the present moment which can help us tap into a felt sense of interconnection with all things. 

As practitioners who are Black, Indigenous, and People of color (including Asian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and/or Latinx people of color), practicing with the elements can be deeply restorative and healing. It can feel like coming home. Colonization, enslavement, imperialism, and patriarchy have all used violence to try to separate us from the natural world, because our connection with nature makes us too powerful to dominate. Let us reconnect with the elements in this weeklong retreat, in affinity space, and tap into the wisdom nature holds about how to liberate ourselves and to live together in a beloved community.

Join us for a five-night silent retreat in the beautiful natural setting of the Big Bear Retreat Center, only two hours from Los Angeles. We will spend our days deepening our meditation practice in the service of cultivating wisdom and compassion needed to transfer out to our lives.  As we settle our minds, supported by nature, we can see ourselves and the world with deeper clarity and allow our inner wisdom to emerge. 

The retreat will include sitting and walking meditation with ongoing guidance, lecture and instruction from the teachers. We will also have an opportunity to practice cultivating positive emotions, mindful speaking and listening, mindful eating, as well as experience the depth of stillness that can come through an extended period of practice. Daily movement practice will be led during this retreat. 

This silent retreat is suitable for beginning or experienced students. 

Click here to register and for additional information

During this week-long silent mindfulness meditation retreat, we will learn to pay attention with an embodied knowing that leads to intuitive wisdom. We will practice loving embodiment as we cultivate attending to each moment with mindfulness. Being immersed in the natural world, we’ll attune to nature within ourselves and around us. This practice allows insights to arise, bringing greater freedom for ourselves and communities.

We will offer meditation instructions (including sitting, standing, and walking), guided heart practices, as well as Dharma talks, practice discussions, question and answer periods, and ample time to practice independently. We will be practicing both indoors and outdoors in nature. This retreat is suitable for both newer and more experienced students of Buddhism.

Click here to register and for additional information

Finding Refuge in Belonging: A Retreat for Self-Identified Black, Indigenous and People of Color

Spirit Rock Meditationo Center, Woodacre California with Noli Alexander, Gullu Singh, Margarita Loinaz, Ramona Lisa Ortiz Smith + Jonathan Relucio

As a BIPOC community, we come together to awaken to the possibility of our collective liberation. Knowing this liberation can only happen while in the presence of Beloved Community, we will open our hearts and minds to the true refuge of belonging.

Throughout this retreat, we will gain insight into the 10 Paramis—the perfections or attainments of heart and mind—which will guide us as a map for the recovery and reclamation of a culture of belonging and wisdom. These are qualities for navigating life, not just guidelines for meditation, and they are said to be what the Buddha was cultivating in earlier lifetimes as he slowly developed into one who could awaken fully and show others the way to freedom.

We will practice both seated and walking meditation/movement, as well as guided meditations, instructions, and Dharma offerings. All meditation levels are welcome to register.

Yoga and Meditation: Embodying the Brahmavihāras

Description:
In this restorative silent retreat, we’ll weave together practices from the Yoga and Dharma traditions to help you cultivate and embody the heart qualities known as the brahmavihāras: the “divine abodes” of kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. The spacious schedule is designed to support mindful presence within the flow of movement and stillness, nourishing your spirit and helping you reconnect with what matters most. There will be time to rest, be in nature, and find the natural rhythms of your own practice. Each day includes guided practice sessions that weave together a gentle, mindful Yoga session, seated meditation instructions, and Dharma reflections, as well as silent seated and walking meditation, open time for self-guided movement practice, and small group meetings with a teacher.

This retreat is silent except for teacher-led Q&A, small groups, or other practice meetings.

Financial Details
Residential Retreat Sliding Scale: $275-$2600, PLUS a donation to the teacher(s).
Supporter Rate w/guaranteed single room – $2,600
Benefactor Rate – $2050
Sustainer Rate – $1575
BASE – $1025
Reduced Rate – $650
Scholarship Rate (BIPOC, Mudita/Karuna, or Young Adult) – $275

Scholarship offerings: In returning to the land, we returned to our pre-pandemic scholarship options and policies. All scholarship rates require a minimum fee ($55/night). Scholarships are limited to TWO per calendar year for on-land retreats. And, while we are not able to offer “pay what you can”-type of scholarships for in-person retreats, they are still available for online offerings as space allows.

Room Occupancy Update*: Starting on March 27, 2022, we returned to double and single occupancy rooms. Many of our rooms are single occupancy (only 16 of 80 rooms are double occupancy). We have also returned to offering a “guaranteed single room” rate and these will be limited (16). This rate guarantees a single room while helping to support scholarships and all we do here at Spirit Rock. The remaining single rooms are not exclusive to the top end of the sliding scale; however, they are initially prioritized for those with serious medical needs.

CONTACT:
Spirit Rock Registration
registration@spiritrock.org